'Foul up 3': Pacers' late blunders, turnovers prove costly in Game 1 vs. Celtics

The Indiana Pacers were right there.

On the brink of a massive Game 1 upset and the chance to instantly snatch away home-court advantage, the young Pacers squad showed their inexperience as they committed costly blunders and turnovers to let the Celtics back into the game in the dying seconds of regulation.

"We showed our age a little bit tonight," Pacers centre Myles Turner said after the game.

The final minute of the fourth quarter started with Pascal Siakam committing a loose ball foul on Jaylen Brown, which would be challenged and upheld. At the 40-second mark, Jayson Tatum missed a 3-pointer, the Pacers grabbed the rebound, but Tyrese Haliburton lost the ball out of bounds after completely fumbling his dribble and bouncing it off his foot.

Then with 10 seconds left and the Pacers up three, Tatum fouled Haliburton to kill some clock after a rebound and set up the defence. Unfortunately, Andrew Nembhard threw Siakam a poor inbounds pass that deflected off his hand and went out of bounds, allowing the Celtics to set up a play in the Pacers zone with 8.5 seconds left.

A ridiculous Jaylen Brown 3-pointer from the corner and two Mike Breen "Bang" calls later and the game was tied up at 117 apiece and destined for overtime. The Celtics ultimately won 133-128 to take a lead in the series.

Following the game, Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle shouldered the blame for the brutal defeat, pointing towards his choice to forgo taking a timeout to bring the ball up the court before the Nembhard turnover.

"This loss is totally on me," Carlisle said. "With 10 seconds in regulation, we should’ve just taken the timeout, advanced the ball, found a way to get it in, made a free throw or two, and ended the game.”

Haliburton disagreed, shouldering the blame himself and saying "That's not on him ... I'll take that more than he should ... I'll be better."

Another decision that came under immense scrutiny was the Pacers' choice not to foul the Celtics while up three in the final 10 seconds, a choice that would eventually lead to Brown's game-tying 3-pointer.

Carlisle told the media after the game that he did apparently tell his team to foul on that possession, but there wasn't an opportunity to do so.

The inability to foul even drew the ire of some prominent names on social media:

Boston wound up snatching the win away in the extra frame as Tatum turned up to the tune of 11 points, helping the Celtics protect their home court and preventing Indiana from getting some much-needed momentum in the Eastern Conference Finals.

But it all could've been so different for the Pacers. Two awful turnovers at the end of regulation, two more brutal ones in the final minute of overtime, and some questionable decision-making prevented an all-time shocker to kick off the third round.

The Pacers came into this series as massive underdogs, and shooting themselves in the foot during a more-than-winnable game likely won't help their case.

"Think it's discouraging just because of the plays that happened down the stretch," Haliburton said. "We feel like we were in position to win the game and just didn't win the game.

"But what I will say is encouraging is we have been trash in Game 1s for the first series and second series, and today we played great for about 47 minutes."